Building an outdoor parrot Aviary.. lots of questions!

Hi we have a Blue fronted amazon parrot and he has free roam of the house, but we wanted to do something special for him.
We are going to build him an inexpensive outdoor aviary. We already have wood for the frame of the aviary.

Will this wire mesh work for the aviary? Shop Blue Hawk 48-in x 50-ft Green Steel Hardware Cloth at Lowes.com=
It is from lowes. its holes are 2" by 3". Is that too big? It is also coated with vinyl, and I wanted to know if that is safe for him. It dosent look like it is coated with any zinc or anything. I don't think it is galvanized. But please check out the link to it above..^

We also wanted to know whether we should elevate it from the ground.. We are thinking of making it about 6-8' long and 3.5-4' wide. I am not sure whether to just keep it 48" tall, and just elevate the aviary, or make it 8' tall and keep the aviary on the ground with a wooden base?
How large would you make it for him? (blue fronted amazon parrot) and keep in mind the mesh is sold in rolls that are 4' tall and 50' long...

I am thinking about putting plants in the aviary.. would it be best to keep the aviary on the ground and plant the plants, or elevate the aviary on 4 legs and put potted plants in?

Will the wood base rot out if it is kept on the ground?

We are ONLY keeping him out there every now and then because we have a loving family inside haha!

Please post any comments/concerns in addition to answering my questions..
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hardware cloth is galvanized and galvanizing solution is a zinc solution to retard rusting of the steel base the wire is made from.....the vinyl coating only holds in the oxidation problem of galvanizing exposed to the weather.....additionally, vinyl coatings are chewing magnets to some birds, as is the taste of zinc mixed with other metals/chemicals.....

I looked at the specs listed for that hardware cloth & it doesn't say how thick the wire is, but normally hardware cloth is manufactured with 20ga wire and while it might keep an Amazon in, hardware cloth is not really a sturdy wire.....

Yes, a wooden base will rot, whether it is on the ground or not.....even painting or staining it will not prevent the rot...and...you cannot use treated wood or treated plywood, because both are toxic/deadly to birds.....

Plants, planted or potted need to be bird safe & may or may not get chewed on by your 'zon.....

Thanks for all of the information! Yes I am well aware about the plants that they can have in the aviary.
Do you have a recommendation of what type of wire to get and where to get it? Thanks!

Any wire you use will be galvanized, unless you are lucky enough to find any stainless wire at a scrap yard.....20 gauge wire is about the size of what is used in off the shelf stereo systems....thick enough to keep conures, lovebirds, 'tiels, p'lets & maybe 'zons, but that would be it.....there is a lighter weight chain-link fencing & I think Lowes carries it.....even macaws can't chew through it...bend it probably.....

but cant galvanized wire kill parrots? Should I try to un-galvanize the wire?

I agree. make sure the plants are safe and do NOT use treated wood.

PS: not to hijack the thread, but is there a point in making an outdoor cage for a clipped bird? cuz its not like he could fly around. or just take him outside on harness every once and a while.

I built an outdoor aviary last year. Do it! I used 1" GAW (galvanized after weld) wire on a 3'x100' roll. To treat the wire you need to scrub it with a mixture of vinegar and water, using a wire brush. This is what everyone who builds an affordable aviary does. I used 14 guage wire. My aviary is critter proof however, so the bottom 2 feet of the sides and 1 foot down into the ground is double wired with 1/4 inch wire on top of the 1" wire.

Don't let anyone discourage you or talk you out of this project. You wll be so happy when it's done and your bird will love it!

Thanks so much for that helpful info!!! I knew that the vinegar and water solution was an option but I thought it was much more challenging. Can you please explain the process of soaking the mesh in the vinegar/water mix?
How much vinegar and how much water will I need?
What type of vinegar would I use?
Do I need to re-apply the mixture every 6months or year?

Oh and btw.. his wings are NOT clipped and we do have a harness for him already so he can fly outside. Just clarifying. So he will hopfully be able to fly in the aviary.

Thanks!

10 percent to 25 percent vinegar to water is common for the soak. If you spray the wire instead of soaking it you can use straight vinegar then rinse after you have brushed the wire down.

I know people worry a lot about the bird chewing on wire, but I've found that if there are lots of branches/ropes/crossbeams in the aviary the birds have no interest in the wire.

I think I'm more relaxed about GAW wire than some because my indoor bird room is divided from my living room with wire mesh.

If you are going to obsess over galvanized wire I would NOT build an aviary. The stress will make you unable to enjoy the aviary.

Thanks again,
and just a couple more questions...
Do you need to repeat the vinegar process once a year or anything?
How large should the holes in the mesh be?
Thanks in advance

I'm sorry, I don't know everything you want to know about galvanized maintenance. If there are obvious flakes of galvanization on the wire I would spray with vinegar and brush it down again. Weathering is good for GAW wire so just being outside will help neutralize the wire too. It certainly does not hurt the wire to have it doused with vinegar as often as you need to in order to not worry.

The size of wire mesh depends on the size of your bird and if you want to protect against predators. We have hawks where I live and the occasional traveling ferral cat. I live in a rural area so it is feasible a skunk or raccoon could pay a visit also. This is why I chose 1".

But I also want to protect my birds from snakes and mice which can sqeeze through pretty small holes. This is why I put 1/4" wire over the 1" wire on the bottom of the aviary walls, and also dug a trench a foot deep around the perimeter so I could extend the wire down below the ground. Once the wire was afixed to the wood frame I filled in the trench.

We have lots of chipmonks in the yard and they sit outside the aviary looking longingly at the debris from the parrots but the cannot get in. Same with squirrels overhead.

1025667 said:

Do you need to repeat the vinegar process once a year or anything?
How large should the holes in the mesh be?
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

The answer to repeating vinegar washes annually or semi-annually is a toss-up, based on how bad the caging/fencing oxidizes/powders. The main purpose of the vinegar bath is to remove leached zinc powder on the surface of the fencing, something some bids tend to mouth/lick, but using the vinegar may be as bad as using a metal brush, like Sodakat suggested. To create a galvanized coating, the fencing is drawn through an acid bath to remove any oils, organic matter or other contaminants, then it is drawn through a hot liquid galvanizing solution, cut to roll lengths and rolled for sale.

Essentially, the coating is harder than the steel it is protecting and using a wire brush will score/scrape the galvanized coating, then washing with an acid solution will serve to degrade a scored/scraped coating further.....

A 10% vinegar solution bath, scrubbed with a non-metal, stiff bristled brush will remove the oxidized zinc with minimal effect to the galvanizing.....if you live in an area of little annual rainfall, you might want to re-visit a vinegar solution bath on an annual basis, however, an annual or maybe semi-annual bath with hot soap & water should remove latent oxidation, considering normal rains will have removed some of any accumulated oxidation.....

Sodakat indicated her fencing was 1"x1" which would be fine.....the idea is to both keep your feathered friends in, while keeping wild birds out.....

Good luck.....

You can use a GAW wire but you CANNOT USE HARDWIRE CLOTH, HARDWIRE CLOTH KILLS BIRDS! The best is stainless steel but it is very pricey.

This is a really good site to use, itgives you what size wire, guage and materials to use:

NaturalBird.com Indoor and Outdoor Aviary Building FAQ:

What is the difference between hardwire cloth and wire mesh? I don't understand.

I would tend to disagree with washing galvanised wire with vinegar. This would form zinc acetate which is soluble and easily ingested by birds, just in climbing up the wire using their beaks. The whole point of galvanising is that the zinc forms an insoluble zinc oxide layer which would be more difficult to ingest, and which protects the underlying metallic zinc. Washing with any acid, even a weak one like acetic (vinegar) would remove small amounts of the zinc. The last cage I bought had the suggestion "leave for 2 months to weather" before putting birds in it, which might not be practical for many people (although the parts could be left outside while the cage is being constructed, which might help).